To get a sense of how senior living design fared in 2024, Environments for Aging asked its Editorial Advisory Board members to share where they saw progress in 2024 and what surprised them the most about the sector this year.
In what area of the industry did you see the most progress this year?
“Following the impact of COVID and the inflationary pressures of the past few years, there is a spirit of optimism emerging as organizations begin to see opportunities to ramp up planning for new development and bring projects to the market. Real estate values have continued to rise, which gives prospective residents more purchasing power and will (hopefully) help to blunt the impact of the cost of new construction.”—Steve Lindsey, CEO, Garden Spot Communities (New Holland, Pa.)
“We saw the merging of independent living with assisted living. The idea that residents will move from one part of a building or campus to another as their needs increase is falling out of favor, with residents wanting to age in place. This means that assisted living studios are no longer the norm, but rather independent living type apartments are being licensed for assisted living and provided with induction cooktops that can be locked down if need be.”—Cynthia Shonaiya, principal, senior living / affordable housing market sector leader, Hord Coplan Macht (Baltimore, Md.)
“Sadly, I don’t think there was a lot of progress this year, particularly for nursing homes. The majority of care communities are still experiencing significant staffing shortages, which to me says they have not created a workplace culture and environment that adequately respects and rewards the hard work staff do. Because there are communities with high retention/low turnover, we know it can be done. Yet staffing is still cited as the number one problem.”—Margaret Calkins, IDEAS Institute (Cleveland Heights, Ohio)
“From our perspective the most progress we saw was revamping/renovating existing communities to bring them up to par with current or local competition. Acquisition and repositioning were very popular this year. There seemed to have been a good delay in new construction.”—Alicia J. Nicolay, director of design, Spellman Brady & Co. (St. Louis)
“I watched with great relief as clients successfully rebuilt their occupancy rates, making tremendous progress.”—Grant Warner, senior housing practice leader, associate partner, BKV Group (Dallas)
Good or bad, what surprised you the most about the senior living design sector in 2024?
“I was surprised by its resilience and relative robustness, compared to the multifamily sector, despite the economic challenges. I was also heartened by the renewed focus on affordable options.”—Cynthia Shonaiya, principal, senior living / affordable housing market sector leader, Hord Coplan Macht (Baltimore, Md.)
“I was surprised by the pre-occupation with high-end luxury projects. Especially at a time when the affordability is the dominant and ever-growing crisis in seniors housing.”—Grant Warner, senior housing practice leader, associate partner, BKV Group (Dallas)
